Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Tony Stark has left the Stark Resilient launch party to take Sasha Hammer for a drive. He tells her he's considering crashing the car. His built-in armour will protect him, but she might not survive. When Sasha says she thought he was a one of the good guys, he just says he's friends with them. He didn't succeed in business by being a nice guy.
Sasha calls his bluff and ups the ante. She grabs the steering wheel and moves them into oncoming traffic. Then she sits astride him, facing him as he steers them back into the right lane. Stark tells her he can see where he's going even though she's in the way, because his armour has sensors all over, including in the gauntlets he's manifested over his hands on the steering wheel. So Sasha abandons her tactic and moves back to the passenger seat.
Tony claims to know who her father is. (But no more is said about that this issue.)
Back at the Space Needle Pepper Potts and Mrs Arbogast are keeping the party going. But Pepper is distracted by listening to police reports in a discrete earpiece.
Tony asks Sasha why she and her mother Justine want to destroy him. Sasha says they don't want to destroy him, they want to replace him. And then (I think) promote anarchy.
Sasha asks Tony how his latest armour works. He tells her he met a boy from the future with shape-shifting 'liquid' armour. This inspired him to invent something like it. And it turns out the future armour will be based on this invention.
Tony then reveals that he knows that she was Ezekiel Stane's girlfriend/partner-in-crime. He asks her if the enhancements Stane gave her are working OK now that Stane isn't available to maintain them. In angry response Sasha lashes out with energy whips from her fingers, causing Tony to turn the car over.
Both survive the crash. Tony armours up, and they start to fight.
Pepper hears news of the fight over the radio, and hurriedly leaves the party to head to the scene as Rescue. Mrs Arbogast makes up an excuse that she has gone to see an eager potential investor. This causes some of the guests to press to be allowed to invest too.
Iron Man has been holding back. But now Sasha lashes out at a passing car. Tony hauls her away from the road. She taunts him that he hasn't got the guts to stop her. Tony morphs the Iron Man armour into a version with a big gun, and blasts her.
Sasha survives. But then Rescue arrives and flattens her with the remains of the car she attacked.
They let Sasha fly off to lick her wounds. Tony says he now knows the extents of her powers, but Sasha only thinks she knows his.
Next day Stark Resilient hold a press conference. Stark spins the events to say that assassins attacked him and Sasha. Apparently someone doesn't want him to build a car that won't need petrol.
Justine Hammer isn't happy about her daughter's actions, because she's alerted Stark to their threat. And they have no way of warning their mole in the company, who is about to strike.
They go ahead with the launch of the Detroit Steel phone app from last issue, that allows users to play a game that simulates them operating an armoured drone to support Detroit Steel. Doug Johnson is currently on a mission, and the Hammer girls divert a small number of the game players to operate real drones.
Len Pimacher at Stark Resilient downloads a copy of the game.
Meanwhile, after the press conference, Tony is going to test drive the 1st of the 2 prototypes of their car, designated Alpha. The other one, Betty, will be ready in a week. But when he starts the car it explodes.